MONTREAL — The claws are out. Montreal’s once flourishing fur industry, fighting for market share, is also mired in infighting.

Two rival trade shows have sprouted in the wake of last year’s demise of NAFFEM — the North American Fur and Fashion Exhibition Montreal — leaving fur manufacturers caught in the middle.

On one side is the Fur Council of Canada and its longtime executive vice-president, Alan Herscovici, which ran NAFFEM for 31 years before reinventing the trade show this season as StyleLab, targeting luxury boutiques as fur is increasingly integrated into fashion collections.

On the other side is Mitch Fazekas of Mitchie’s Matchings, a fur accessories company, who, working with partners, is rolling out the Outerwear Extravaganza Sunday in Montreal. Last year, Fazekas helped organize a trade show in Chicago to rival NAFFEM, drawing away furriers and retailers from Montreal and beyond.

“I really want to see one show,’’ said an impassioned Angelo Argiriou, one of four brothers in a family firm that has made fur garments since 1980. Sitting in a red velvet chair in the storefront of his small Bleury St. factory, Argiriou recalled the glory days of the fur industry — and its decline. He was disappointed, to put it mildly, in the fur council’s show.

“You call it StyleLab,” he said, growing more heated. “This is a different direction, making us (furriers) disappear. Where is the fur?

“Boutique is boutique. I am selling fur.”

At StyleLab last month, Dominic and Joe Sciortino of Luna Furs also lamented the divided market.

“We have no choice. We’re in business,’’ Joe Sciortino said of their decision to do both Montreal shows, as well as Chicago.

In Montreal, everybody will suffer, the Sciortino brothers agreed.

Although Fazekas has said he wanted to save the industry, Dominic Sciortino is not convinced. “I don’t know how he’s going to save the industry by splitting it up.”

“United we stand, divided we fall,’’ said Zuki, a colourful character who is known for his equally colourful sheared beaver coats under his name (he does not use his surname, Balaila).

Luna and Argiriou are among only a handful of companies taking part in both Montreal shows. Zuki participated in StyleLab, and “unfortunately, I’m going to Chicago,” he said, lamenting the demise of NAFFEM.

StyleLab Montreal, held in March at the Palais des Congrès, was quiet, with about 60 collections. Organizers said there were 472 buyers among 1,500 registered visitors, mainly from Canada. On the final day, one Canadian buyer who did not want to be named said: “It’s sad it has come to this.’’

Paul Hardy, a Calgary designer very much respected in Canadian fashion circles, said he had no orders at StyleLab, while a trunk show in Calgary garnered $200,000 in orders in 10 days.

Others were more positive, saying sales were not bad and the event was off to a good start.

Dominic Bellissimo, of Hide Society in Toronto, also does the Coterie trade show in New York City and will do Chicago, and both Montreal shows this year. “It’s expensive,’’ he said, adding the vibe at StyleLab was good.

“We’ve lost the U.S. (buyers), but we still have Russia, we still have China. We’re going to go them. Canada has a great name all around the world.’’

It’s unlikely that Montreal can support two annual shows, most observers said. What’s clear, they noted, is that Montreal has already lost most of the American buyers who, during the ’80s and ’90s, came here in the hundreds. There were as many as 500 exhibitors at Montreal’s annual fur fair in those halcyon years.

The four-day fair, organized by the fur council, featured a gala fashion show and banquet at Place Bonaventure — or more extravagantly, at Le Windsor ballrooms, with models dripping in jewels and draped in furs showing the styles from hundreds of collections. Audience members — editors from Vogue, buyers from Russia, the U.S., Europe and Asia, and Montreal retailers and furriers — also put on the glitz. But NAFFEM had been declining in attendance steadily over several years, and it appears the blame game is at play. The numbers of Canadian exports tell the larger story. Just as in textiles, manufacturing has moved offshore.

Even as total fur exports climbed to more than $987 million in 2013, almost triple the $347.3 million in 1988, the proportion of fur garments and accessories exported plummeted, according to Statistics Canada. In 1988, Canada exported $183.8 million in fur garments; by last year, that figure was down to $23.4 million. By contrast, in 1988 the figure for raw furs exported was $142.6 million; last year, we exported $945 million worth of raw fur.

Canada is increasingly exporting its raw and dressed pelts (skins that are tanned or finished in some way) to China or other countries that then manufacturer them and might even sell them back here.

Herscovici and others have long explained NAFFEM’S decline as the result of the rising Canadian dollar and the increasing cost for Americans to come to Montreal.

Chicago is a transportation hub, making it easy for Americans to fly in if only for a day, with no passports required, Fazekas said.

Chicago International Luxury Outerwear Expo, set for April 27-29, will have about 85 exhibitors, with about 20 from Montreal — “pretty much everybody,” Fazekas said. There were about 60 fur manufacturers in Montreal 20 years ago, and about 100 when Fazekas first started 40 years ago.

“It’s going a be a major, major show for North America,” Fazekas said of Chicago.

NAFFEM was getting stale, said Natural Furs’ Christina Nacos. The 2013 show, in May, was late, Place Bonaventure was depressing and the mood was blah, she said. “It had to reinvent itself.’’

Natural, which creates furs with designers like Hilary Radley and UNTTLD, is participating only in StyleLab and Chicago.

But Nacos is happy with StyleLab and happy with the fur council’s efforts on behalf of the industry. Its marketing initiatives — Fur is Green, Beautifully Canadian and the Design Network — have been very well received abroad, she said.

Outerwear Extravaganza is taking place Sunday through Tuesday at Bonsecours Market in Old Montreal. It has about 40 exhibitors representing about 50 brands, and about 200 buyers, mainly from Canada, with 25 or 30 Americans, Fazekas said.

“Montreal does not need two shows, that’s for sure,’’ he said. “Unfortunately, that’s what happened.”

Fazekas said he started his show because “there was no StyleLab’’ when NAFFEM died. Herscovici said StyleLab was being discussed well before the end of the NAFFEM lease at Place Bonaventure.

“Through the grapevine, I heard there was going to be a StyleLab,’’ Fazekas said, adding he offered the fur council a partnership, which was refused.

“We decided we were going to go head-to-head. And may the best man win,’’ Fazekas said.

The fur council is a non-profit industry group, funded through participation fees in the trade shows. It represents manufacturers and retailers and works to educate the public about fur. It also encourages designers to integrate fur and generally defends the industry in the face of anti-fur activists. It gets government subsidies for export programs.

With no show, there is no council, said Teresa Éloy, marketing consultant for the council who together with consultant Kevin Graff came up with the plan to expand the reach of the show to accessories and ready-to-wear fashion as well as fur. The show had to adapt, she said. Participation was also expensive, she noted, with exhibitors paying $1,500 to $35,000 for a booth at Place Bonaventure.

Herscovici, who has lobbied passionately for the fur industry for 17 years, is clearly upset and angry over the competing trade shows.

“It’s a free country and people can do what they choose. However, we are concerned that if we duplicate or fragment too much it’s only going to weaken Montreal’s presence as a fashion centre,’’ he said.

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